Poll: Most Americans Support Sanctions To Halt North Korea's Nuclear Program [Infographic]

A new poll by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has found that Americans overwhelmingly prefer sanctions rather than military action to stall North Korea's nuclear program. The survey also found that fear about Pyongyang's nuclear aspirations has reached an all time-high of 75 percent. Indeed, fear levels have spiked 15 percent since 2016 alone. U.S. public support for defending South Korea with ground troops in the face of an attack from the North has also increased steadily in recent years, hitting 62 percent in 2017. That's significantly higher than in the mid-90's when only 39 percent of Americans supported military action to defend South Korea in the case of invasion.

When it comes to solving the current crisis and putting an end to Pyongyang's nuclear aspirations, 76 percent of Americans favor imposing tighter sanctions on North Korea while 68 percent said they also support imposing sanctions on Chinese companies doing business with the regime. Given the real threat of retaliation and escalation, substantially fewer people support military action. 40 percent said they would favor airstrikes on nuclear production facilities while 28 percent support U.S. troops being sent to destroy the North's nuclear infrastructure. Even though the military option is less popular, very few Americans say they will tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea. The survey found that only 11 percent of Americans will accept that North Korea will produce more nuclear weapons while 21 percent will accept the regime keeping their weapons in exchange for halting production.